The bikini has spawned many stylistic variations. A regular bikini is defined as a two pieces of garments that cover the groin and buttocks at the lower end and the breasts in the upper end. Some bikinis can offer a large amount of coverage, while other bikinis provide only the barest minimum. Topless variants may still be considered bikinis, although technically no longer two-piece swimsuits.[1] Along with a variation in designs term bikini was followed by an often hilarious lexicon including the numokini (top part missing), seekini (transparent bikini), tankini (tank top, bikini bottom), camikini (camisole top and bikini bottom) and hikini.[2] Since fashions of different centuries exist beside one another in early 21st century, though it is possible to imagine a woman combining a bikini and a 1910 bathing costume.[3]
Bikini tops come in several different styles and cuts, including a halter-style neck that offers more coverage and support, a strapless bandeau, a rectangular strip of fabric covering the breasts that minimizes large breasts, a top with cups similar to a push-up bra, and the more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts. Bikini bottoms vary in style and cut and in the amount of coverage they offer, coverage ranging anywhere from complete underwear-style coverage, as in the case of more modest bottom pieces like briefs, shorts, or briefs with a small skirt-panel attached, to almost full exposure, as in the case of the thong bikini. Skimpier styles have narrow sides, including V-cut (in front), French cut (with high-cut sides) and low-cut string (with string sides).[1] In one major fashion show in 1985 were two-piece suits with cropped tank tops instead of the usual skimpy bandeaux, suits that are bikinis in front and one-piece in back, suspender straps, ruffles, and daring, navel-baring cutouts.[4] Subsequent variations on the theme include the monokini, tankini, string bikini, thong, slingshot, minimini, teardrop, and micro.[5]
To meet the fast changing tastes, some of the manufacturers have made a business out of making made-to-order bikinis in around seven minutes.[6] Popular Brazilian beach markets have been identified as the source for the most diverse range of bikini merchandises.[7]
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Following are the major variants of bikini.
A string bikini is scantier and more revealing than a traditional bikini. It gets its name from the string characteristics of its design. It consists of two triangular shaped pieces connected at the groin but not at the sides, where a thin "string" wraps around the waist connecting the two parts. String bikini tops are similar and are tied in place by the attached "string" pieces. String pieces can either be continuous or tied. A string bikini bottom can have minimal to maximum coverage of a woman's backside.
It is claimed that Brazilian fashion model Rose de Primallio created the first string bikini when she had to sew one with insufficient fabric available to her for a photoshoot. The first formal presentation of string bikini was done by Glen Tororich, a public relations agent, and his wife Brandi Perret-DuJon, a fashion model, for the opening of Le Petite Centre, a shopping area in the French Quarter of the New Orleans, Louisiana in 1974. Inspired by a picture of a Rio de Janeiro fashion model in an issue of Women's Wear Daily, they had local fashion designer Lapin create a string bikini for the event. Models recruited by talent agent Peter Dasigner presented it by removing fur coats by Alberto Lemon on stage. The presentation was covered by local television stations and the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, and was sent out via the wire news services of the Associated Press and United Press International.
String bikinis are one of the most popular variations of bikini.[8]
A monokini, sometimes referred to as a unikini, is a women's one-piece garment equivalent to the lower half of a bikini.[9] The term monokini is also now used for any topless swimsuit,[10] particularly a bikini bottom worn without a bikini top.[11] In 1964, Rudi Gernreich, an Austrian fashion designer, designed the original monokini in the US.[12] Gernreich also invented its name, and the word monokini is first recorded in English that year. Gernreich's monokini looked like a one-piece swimsuit suspended from two halter straps in the cleavage of bared breasts. It had only two small straps over the shoulders, leaving the breasts bare. Despite the reaction of fashion critics and church officials, shoppers purchased the monokini in record numbers that summer, though very few monokinis were ever worn in public. By the end of the season, Gernreich had sold 3000 swimsuits at $24 apiece, which meant a tidy profit for such a minuscule amount of fabric.[13] It was not very successful in the USA, where although allowing the sexes equal exposure above the waist, have never accepted it for the beach.[14] Many women who wanted to sunbathe topless simply wore the bottom part of a bikini. Manufacturers and retailers quickly adapted to selling tops and bottoms separately. Gernreich later created the lesser known pubikini.[15]
Peggy Moffitt, the original model for the infamous suit, said it was a logical evolution of Gernreich's avant-garde ideas in swimwear design as much as a scandalous symbol of the permissive society.[14] In the 1960s, the monokini led the way into the sexual revolution by emphasizing a woman's personal freedom of dress, even when her attire was provocative and exposed more skin than had been the norm during the more conservative 1950s. Like all swimsuits, the monokini bottom portion of the swimsuit can vary in cut. Some have g-string style backs, while others provide full coverage of the rear. The bottom of the monokini may be high cut, reaching to the waist, with high cut legs, or may be a much lower cut, exposing the belly button. The modern monokini, which is less racy than Gernreich's original design, takes its design from the bikini, and is also described as "more of a cut-out one-piece swimsuit,"[16] with designers using fabric, mesh, chain, or other materials to link the top and bottom sections together, though the appearance may not be functional, but rather only aesthetic.[17] In recent years, the term has come into use for topless bathing by women: where the bikini has two parts, the monokini is the lower part. Where monokinis are in use, the word bikini may jokingly refer to a two-piece outfit consisting of a monokini and a sun hat.[18]
A microkini is an extremely skimpy bikini.[19] The designs for both women and men typically use only enough fabric to cover the genitals. Any additional straps are merely to keep the garment attached to the wearer's body. Some variations of the microkini use adhesive or wire to hold the fabric in place over the genitals. These designs do not require any additional side straps to keep the garment in place. The most radical variations of the microkini are simply thin straps which cover little or none of the wearer's body. The term "microkini" was coined in 1995 in an online community dedicated to enthusiasts of the extreme designs.[20][21] Microkinis keep the wearer just within legal limits of decency and fill a niche between nudism and conservative swimwear.[22]
The modern microkini's origins can be traced back to the early 1970s in Venice Beach, California, U.S., where, after legislation was passed banning nudity, beach regulars began making their own tiny bathing suits to comply with the new laws. The homemade suits were often little more than tiny, remnant pieces of fabric, crudely sewn together with thin twine or fishing line. Around 1975, a local bikini shop picked up on the idea and began to make more practical styles using modern materials. Soon after, several adult film actresses began wearing the shop's suits in their films and the style began to catch on.
The tankini is a swimsuit combining a tank top, mostly made of spandex-and-cotton or Lycra-and-nylon, and a bikini bottom introduced in the late 1990s.[23][24][25] According to author William Safire, "The most recent evolution of the -kini family is the tankini, a cropped tank top supported by spaghetti-like strings."[26] The tankini is distinguished from the classic bikini by the difference in tops, the top of the tankini essentially being a tank top. The tankini top extends downward to somewhere between just above the navel and the top of the hips. The word is a neologism combining the tank of tank top with the end of the word bikini. This go-between nature of tankini has rendered its name to things ranging from a lemonade-based martini (Tankini Martini)[27] to server architecture (Tankini HipThread).[28] This type of swimwear is considered by some to provide modesty closer to a one piece suit with the convenience of a two piece suit, like the entire suit need not be removed in order to use a lavatory.
Designer Anne Cole, described as a godmother of swimwear in the USA, was originator of this style.[29] She scored what would be her biggest hit in 1998 when her label introduced the tankini. A two-piece suit with a top half that covered more of a woman's torso than a standard bikini top, the suit was an instant hit with customers.[30] Variations of the tankini, made of spandex-and-cotton or Lycra-and-nylon, have been named camkini, with spaghetti straps instead of tank-shaped straps over a bikini bottom, and even bandeaukini, with a bandeau worn as the top.[29] Tankinis come in a variety of styles, colors and shapes, some include features such as integrated push-up bras. It is particularly popular as children's beachwear,[31] and athletic outfit good enough for a triathlon.[32] According to Katherine Betts, Vogue's fashion-news director, this amphibious sportswear for sand or sea lets the user go rafting, playing volleyball and swimming without worrying about losing their top.[24]
The sling bikini is also known as a "suspender bikini", "suspender thong", "slingshot bikini" or just "slingshot". It is a one-piece suit which provides as little, or even less, coverage (or as much exposure) as a bikini. Usually, a slingshot resembles a bikini bottom, but rather than the straps going around the hips or waist, the side straps extend upwards to cover the breasts and go over the shoulders, leaving the entire sides of the torso uncovered, but the nipples and pubic area covered. Behind the neck, the straps join and reach down the back to the buttocks to become a thong.[33] The variation of sling bikinis that has the straps simply encircle the neck and another set of straps pass around the midriff, instead of the straps passing over the neck and down the back, is called a pretzel bikini.[33] Corresponding to the advent of Lycra, these bikinis first emerged in the early 1990s, and is more popular on the beaches of Europe including Saint-Tropez, Marabella, Mykonos and Ibiza.[34] Suspender-like straps that running between the breasts and around the neck held the suit up were introduced in the mainstream in 1994. News reports said that within a week of putting the suit on their racks, New York's major stores had sold 150. San Francisco women turned deaf ears to clergymen's warnings that "nakedness and paganism go hand in hand." By season's end, the tally sold was 3000 plus, at $24 a suit.[35]
The trikini appeared briefly in 1967, defined as "a handkerchief and two small saucers." It reappeared a few years ago as a bikini bottom with a stringed halter of two triangular pieces of cloth covering the breasts.[36] The trikini top comes essentially in two separate parts.[37] The name of this woman's bathing suit is formed from bikini, replacing "bi-", meaning "two", with "tri-", meaning "three".[38] Fashion writer William Safire wrote in The New York Times: "Stripping to essentials, if the trikini is three pieces, the bikini two and the monokini one, when will we see the zerokini?"[39] Dolce & Gabbana designed trikinis for Summer 2005 as three pieces of scintillating sequined fabric, barely cover the essentials of a woman's body.[40] A variation on the bikini in which three pieces are sold together, such as a bikini with a tank top or a bikini with a one-piece suit is also sometimes called a Trikini,[41] including a conventional two-piece with a glitzy band of rhinestones round the waist.[42] Israeli designer Gideon Oberson, known for his artistically inspired bathing suits, calls a two-piece suit but looks like a tank top that can be worn with a skirt or a pair of shorts designed by him a trikini.[43] Brazilian designer Amir Slama calls two sexy scraps of silk connected with string he designed for skinny women a trikini.[44]
In 1985, designer Rudi Gernreich unveiled the pubikini, a bathing suit meant to expose pubic hair.[45] The pubikini is a small piece of fabric that hugs the hips and buttocks but leaves the pubic region exposed,[15] described as a tiny V-shaped fabric strip and a piece de resistance totally freeing the human body.[46]
The bikini precursors as well as the first modern bikinis were made of cotton and jersey and were mostly stripped or monochrome. Réard introduced the first printed material for bikini.[47] By the 1970s, when American women were catching up with the more daring Europeans attitudes, bikini variants started to diversify widely. Flower patterns became popular in the late 1960s.[48] Today bikinis are made with mostly made with treated fabric, having been stretched over a plastic mold, then baked in order to set its shape and create bikini brassieres.[49] Fashion adviser Malia Mills has two basic criteria to check the material—it doesn't wrinkle into a bundle at the back, and nothing "falls out" when picking a towel or raising the arms.[50] Bikinis are usually lined with fabric which is designed to stop them becoming transparent when wet.[51]
When, in 1960s, swimsuit designers rediscovered lycra (DuPont's name for spandex), a stretch fiber that allowed them to stitch tinier pieces of fabric. Retailer Marks & Spencer reintroduced the material used as an alternative to nylon in swimsuits in the 1960s.[52] Spandex expanded the range of novelty fabrics available to designers which meant suits could be made to fit like a second skin without heavy linings streamlined athletic styles, emphasizing high-tech fabrics and finishes.[53] It allowed designers to create the string bikini, and allowed Rudi Gernreich to created the topless monokini.[54] According to Kelly Killoren Bensimon in The Bikini Book, "The advent of Lycra allowed more women to wear a bikini. It didn't sag, it didn't bag, and it concealed and revealed. It wasn't so much like lingerie anymore." The stretch nylon bikini briefs and bras which complemented the adolescent boutique fashions of the 1960s also allowed those to be very minimal.[55] Women on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and Saint-Tropez went even further, forgoing all rear-view coverage to show off their thongs.[56] For the female bodybuilder the material regulations are more stringent, as "the two pieces of the bikini are fastened together with two strings, and the fasteners as all as the bikini must not consist of metallic material or padding."[57] A platinum bikini valued at US $9500 was made by Mappin and Webb of London in the 1977, and was worn by Miss United Kingdom in that year's Miss World beauty pageant. It was entered as a Guinness World Record for the most expensive bikini.[58]
More uncommon fabrics are appearing around the world since 1960s that include paper-made bikinis[59] and directly tan-through bikinis,[60] the latter being a flimsy flesh-colored suit that allowed the sun's rays to penetrate the garment.[61] Late 20th century designer Laura Jane created bikinis made of neoprene, the rubber material used to make wetsuits in 1989.[62] Fernando Garcia, a bikini designer in South Beach, Miami, turns various exotic material into bikinis including black-and-Day-Glo, python skin and Mongolian lamb fringe and black fox material.[63] Crochet, lace, PVC, raffia, fur, latex, velvet and other uncommon items are used as bikini material.[64] New York inventor Andrew Schneider has invented a solar bikini that is covered with 40 flexible photovoltaic cells that feed into a USB connection that can plug straight into an iPod. Two hours of sunbaking is claimed by the inventor to be enough to charge an iPod shuffle.[65] For better UV protection, as wet clothes have reduced protection against UV light, chemical company BASF has incorporated nanotechnology into bikinis. Made of Day-Glo leopard skin polyamide (nylon)-6 these bikinis have titanium dioxide embedded and provide a variable sunblock factor—80 for the beach and 15 for a spring day.[66]
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